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Rewards for knowledge sharing? |
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Abstract In late 2000, the crisis in the telecommunications market affected most of the telecommunication companies and led to high cost pressure. Most of the business activities were effected, including Knowledge Management. One of the activities where Siemens ICN had to change was its monetary incentive system for sharing knowledge within the company. ICN changed the existing system into a (cheaper) reward system where excellent users received an expert or master status. However, these non monetary rewards did not have the desired impact on knowledge sharing. Thus, monetary incentives seem to have an immediate effect on motivation, but to support knowledge sharing in the long run, non monetary incentives should be chosen. Today’s challenge of knowledge sharing Knowledge management has always been and will be considered a competitive advantage for Siemens Information and Communication Networks (ICN). This benefit should add to our competitiveness even or especially in times of high cost pressure. Facing this is one of our biggest knowledge management challenges. About ICN Siemens is one of the largest electronics companies in the world and is divided into 15 different divisions, whereof Siemens ICN operates the telecommunications network business. ICN has sales of ~8 billions of Euro and app. 35,000 employees in more than 150 countries. Since the mid-1990s, massive changes in the business environment drove the need for knowledge networking: deregulation of the telecom market, new competitors and technology. Moreover, the shift from a pure product business to a stronger services focus and solution approach increased the complexity and knowledge intensity of ICN’s business. As a consequence, the idea of ShareNet as a "global knowledge sharing network" was born. ShareNet – leveraging local innovations globally ICN ShareNet, implemented in 1999, is a knowledge sharing network for all Sales, Marketing, and Business Development people of ICN worldwide. It is intended to become the "number 1" knowledge source for these people, that gives access to all relevant information and knowledge they need for their daily job. In ShareNet all members are contributors and users of knowledge at the same time. ShareNet covers both explicit and tacit knowledge of the Sales value creation process including project know-how, technical and functional solution components, and the business environment and has a strong focus on experience based knowledge. In addition to structured "questionnaires" on the above mentioned topics, ShareNet provides less structured spaces such as chats, community news, discussion groups on special issues and urgent requests. Incentive systems of ShareNet ShareNet used to incentivize knowledge sharing by offering incentives like cellular phones, PDA’s or even travels to a knowledge management conference in New York thus incentives that had a clear monetary STYLE. In 2001, ICN as most of the telecommunication companies were undergoing severe economical pressure, which resulted in many different cost cutting activities. Due to these circumstances, the existing incentive system of ShareNet was stopped. This led to a considerable decrease of knowledge sharing in ShareNet. Nevertheless, knowledge sharing should still be rewarded and consequently a new reward system was implemented that should motivate people by equalling an expert or master status for a certain quantitative and qualitative amount of knowledge shared. The names of the actual Experts and Masters are published in the regular ShareNet newsletter. As these kind of rewards had only dispensable effects on motivation, non monetary incentives seemed to become hardly accepted. Empirical study of ShareNet In order to research into the motivational effects of non monetary rewards, an empirical study was undertaken. This study included interviews as well as an online-survey. The interviews were conducted with key stakeholders as well as users and non-users of ShareNet worldwide. The online survey was based on the results of the interviews and carried out among all employees registered in ShareNet. For details, please contact cornelia@schostek.de. Consequences of monetary rewards Conclusion of this study and the experience ICN was undergoing, monetary rewards seem to have an immediate effect on motivation to share knowledge. Nevertheless, the quality of the knowledge shared can be inferior, and the attitude that knowledge is a private and non collective good is enforced. Once knowledge is shared only because monetary rewards are obtained, knowledge sharing will decrease when these rewards are withdrawn. Additionally to these consequences, high costs led us to focus on non monetary rewards that may not have an immediate, but a long-term impact on motivation. Therefore the use of monetary incentives should only be used with cautious. We believe that it could be considered a good incentive at the beginning of a knowledge management system to obtain a critical mass for a community, but should not be in place for a long time to avoid the negative effects. Conclusion Facing high cost pressure and benefiting at the same time from knowledge management, ICN changed its monetary incentive system into a non monetary one that equals an expert or master status. Monetary rewards have an immediate effect on motivation to share knowledge but at the same bear the risk of spoiling users. However, monetary incentives can be used to start a knowledge management system and to incentivize users from time to time. Yet, in the long term users should be incentivized non monetarily for sharing their knowledge. Cornelia Schostek (cornelia@schostek.de) Cornelia is a Master Student in Psychology and is working with the ICN Knowledge Management team. Motivational factors for Knowledge Management was the topic of her master thesis. Janina Kugel (janina.kugel@siemens.com) Janina is heading the Siemens ICN Knowledge Management team. Previous to working with Siemens, Janina worked several years in Management Consulting.
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